Reconstruction in Italy after earthquakes: build it with steel!

In Italy, the Fondazione Promozione Acciaio and ArcelorMittal are very active in promoting steel as the best alternative to reconstruct damaged buildings after earthquakes.

Since the middle ages, Italy has recorded almost 100 earthquakes of varying severity. Recently in L’Aquila, in Abruzzo, Umbria and Marche the country has suffered from earthquakes that have caused hundreds of fatalities and extensive damage to constructions.

Reconstruction is therefore an imperative for the Italian community. It encompasses various challenges in terms of speed of construction, cost, versatility and of course seismic resistance.

While historically Italian architects and engineers have been taught to build with concrete, the Fondazione Promozione Acciaio (FPA) and ArcelorMittal are actively promoting steel, which offers outstanding advantages over concrete, particularly in seismic environments.

In September 2016 in Bologna and in October in Firenze, Marco Tognoni, CTS coordinator and Luca Collavoli, account manager at the Milano agency gave 2 lectures on this theme to an audience of dozens of architects and engineers.

Easy to construct and deconstruct, resistant to fire, 100% recyclable, steel is the material of choice for designing buildings that cope with earthquakes because it is inherently ductile and flexible - flexing under extreme loads rather than crushing or crumbling. Furthermore, many of the beam-to-column connections in a steel building are designed principally to support gravity loads. Yet they also have a considerable capacity to resist lateral loads caused by wind and earthquakes.

As Françoise Carrara, construction market coordinator for the South-West region points out, “these awareness initiatives towards architects and engineers are very important to contribute to the development of a culture for steel in Italy”.

Indeed, our Italian teams carry out events on a regular basis to promote steel in construction in Italy, in parallel to the training sessions that FPA organises in the regions recently affected by earthquakes.

The new NATO headquarters, made with ArcelorMittal Europe steel

ArcelorMittal Europe provided steel for the construction of the new NATO headquarters in Brussels. The building was officially inaugurated on May 25, 2017 in the presence of NATO's heads of state.

A huge complex for 4,000 employees

Designed to resemble interlocking fingers, NATO's new headquarters symbolizes unity and cooperation.

The building includes:

offices

outdoor and indoor sports facilities

a logistics area

a conference centre with a capacity of 2,251 seats

a restaurant for 600 people

a car park for 3,331 vehicles

In total, this 254,000 m² site will welcome about 4,000 employees and 500 visitors per day.

Steel for the structure and the floors

ArcelorMittal, through the centres in Orense (Galicia) and Getafe, both within Distribution Iberia, supplied hot rolled steel sections and merchant bars for the structure of this huge construction project. ArcelorMittal Construction was another contributor, supplying flooring system Cofraplus® 77 and roof cladding Hacierco® 54 S and 74 S.

The construction of the new NATO headquarters started in June 2012 and was completed in 2016.

Since May 2017, around 260 NATO staff and contractors moved to work permanently in the new building, the bulk of the move is due to start later this year.

Architects

One of the milestones in architecture was to discover the use of iron and steel for construction. What would the history of architecture have been without steel?

Steel allows even the most creative and bold imagination to become a reality. Moreover, steel's durability is one of the key properties that make it a sustainable material, which complies with the requirements of sustainable design.

The versatility of steel is incontrovertibleThere is no limits in shapes or structures - aspects, colours and effects can all play an unusual role in all types of building elevations.…

Each architectural dream can be achieved through the steel façade and structure of the building. When it comes to structure, steel frames changed the fundamental concept of constructing a wall, introducing the possibility to build lighter and higher while incorporating natural light without any restriction.

No other material has previously allowed such strength while preserving its lightness. The beauty of steel influenced the architectural trend to maintain visible structure - High-Tech architecture also known as Structural Expressionism.

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